Pranay⚡️
@pranman.com
10K followers 6K following 2.3K posts
I build tech for good. I also talk a lot about stuff that makes you think. Interested in UK politics? I built Papernaut, a bsky account that posts news in real-time -> https://bsky.app/profile/ukpolitics.papernaut.co
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pranman.com
Hello to everyone on Blue Sky. Here's a quick intro:

My claim to fame is that I led the digital campaign to fight Brexit including the tactical vote campaign in 2019, in the process becoming the biggest political advertiser in the UK.
Reposted by Pranay⚡️
jsrailton.bsky.social
NEW: breach of Discord age verification data.

Including some users passports & DLs

Age verification is a badly implemented data grab wrapped in a moral panic.

Mark my words, as age verification mandates expand, we'll end up more surveilled and less secure. 1/
pranman.com
Political podcasts are slightly better imo, at least it is clear the words being shared are opinion. In science and history podcasts, that is not obvious unless you're already an expert in the subject, and by then you're either hooked to the conversation or don't care.
pranman.com
No, all genres of podcasts. For every one intelligent person there are 20 people who are just talkers -- and it's not immediately obvious which ones so I find investing time in figuring that out is just not productive.
pranman.com
Actually, many of the 750K people, if commonwealth citizens, would be voters. ie if any are from countries like Nigeria, India, or Pakistan, they are voters. This would've been a strong question to ask.
pranman.com
I hate podcasts because it's talk.

Any fool can talk.

In fact, fools have no other useful role in society, so the more devious ones learn to talk better and become more convincing. Whereas the sages, the actual sages, don't bother.

Ergo, podcasts surface the manipulative, not the intelligent.
Reposted by Pranay⚡️
stevecooke.org
Just leaving this here, showing that educating overseas students is the only university activity that doesn‘t cost more to deliver than it brings in. Maintenance grants are very welcome, but the source of funding for them is not. They‘re making a broken funding model even more broken.
Chart showing that amongst educating overseas students, industry-funded research, government funding, charity funded research, and educating domestic students, only overseas students is profitable.
pranman.com
I suppose given he doesn't even want spouses of British citizens to join them, it would've been astonishing for him to have any empathy for refugee families. Human rights lawyer my foot.
zoejardiniere.bsky.social
People recognised as refugees fleeing persecution & granted the right to live in the UK to be denied the right to be joined safely by their spouse & children.

This Labour govt is a moral void, a stinking darkness, an empty hollow of cowardice & contempt. #r4today www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights
People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’
www.theguardian.com
pranman.com
Don't skilled migrants in general earn far more than the average British worker? So why use 'likely'? Shouldn't it be unlikely?

And strange they're referring to a specific year of arrival of skilled workers, almost as if they're cherry picking the data.
Reposted by Pranay⚡️
eberlmat.bsky.social
And why call it 'golden ticket'?

Disgraceful language. These people have lost everything. Should they also lose their spouses and children?

A reminder that last year 4,671 family reunion visas were granted.

4,671.

Does anyone think this number is a major problem for the UK economy and society?
zoejardiniere.bsky.social
People recognised as refugees fleeing persecution & granted the right to live in the UK to be denied the right to be joined safely by their spouse & children.

This Labour govt is a moral void, a stinking darkness, an empty hollow of cowardice & contempt. #r4today www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights
People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’
www.theguardian.com
pranman.com
Nice photo standing in front of Boris Johnson's flag draped plane. Suits him.
pranman.com
this is hilarious 😀
pranman.com
The attack on the synagogue in Manchester is horrifying, troubling and so distressing. And for this to happen on Yom Kippur is so disturbing and tragic, this is an attack designed to inflict maximum terror on Jewish people. I am so deeply sad about this it's hard to put it in words.
pranman.com
Love that video of Jack Straw that has recently resurfaced, declaring emphatically that the reason Britain won WW1 and WW2 was because of the number of black and brown soldiers who fought alongside.
pranman.com
On a side note I am tired of reading about white people's dating problems. Brown and black people famously don't date.
Reposted by Pranay⚡️
ludictechnologies.bsky.social
Done. Took 1 minute thanks to suggested text in the alt text
pranman.com
For those who want to email The Times in protest, I've copied @zoejardiniere.bsky.social's email into the alt for the image attached below (with a final paragraph added).

Just add your name at the end and send it to [email protected]
Good morning,

I am writing to request a correction to the inaccurate & misleading use of image to accompany a story that appeared in your paper today (Tuesday 30th September 2025). 

The article is online here: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/labour-new-rules-migrants-uk-200x325pb
and has been shared on social media using the same image.

The image shows asylum seekers on a small boat crossing the channel, while the article is entirely concerned with proposed changes to the immigration rules that would affect all other categories of immigrants, and not asylum seekers. The immigrants who will be affected by the policies under discussion in the article will all without exception have entered the UK through regular means on a visa and be working - disproportionately in our health system & public services.

The misuse of images of small boat arrivals that make up just 5% of overall immigration has contributed to the widespread impression that they make up the majority of immigration, and contributes to hostile feeling towards immigrants and ethnic minority Britons. The use of an appropriate image - for example of migrant care workers or farm workers - would better communicate to your readers the actual impact of the proposals contained in the Home Secretary’s speech.

I therefore request that your publication issue a public apology for this misleading use of imagery, update the article with an appropriate and accurate image, and ensure that instructions are issued to your image editors along with updated editorial guidance to prevent a recurrence of such misrepresentation in future coverage.

Thank you,
pranman.com
For those who want to email The Times in protest, I've copied @zoejardiniere.bsky.social's email into the alt for the image attached below (with a final paragraph added).

Just add your name at the end and send it to [email protected]
Good morning,

I am writing to request a correction to the inaccurate & misleading use of image to accompany a story that appeared in your paper today (Tuesday 30th September 2025). 

The article is online here: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/labour-new-rules-migrants-uk-200x325pb
and has been shared on social media using the same image.

The image shows asylum seekers on a small boat crossing the channel, while the article is entirely concerned with proposed changes to the immigration rules that would affect all other categories of immigrants, and not asylum seekers. The immigrants who will be affected by the policies under discussion in the article will all without exception have entered the UK through regular means on a visa and be working - disproportionately in our health system & public services.

The misuse of images of small boat arrivals that make up just 5% of overall immigration has contributed to the widespread impression that they make up the majority of immigration, and contributes to hostile feeling towards immigrants and ethnic minority Britons. The use of an appropriate image - for example of migrant care workers or farm workers - would better communicate to your readers the actual impact of the proposals contained in the Home Secretary’s speech.

I therefore request that your publication issue a public apology for this misleading use of imagery, update the article with an appropriate and accurate image, and ensure that instructions are issued to your image editors along with updated editorial guidance to prevent a recurrence of such misrepresentation in future coverage.

Thank you,
pranman.com
To extend the qualifying period for any migrant is absolutely mindless, but to extend them for migrants who even many in the right-wing see as "good migrants" is just astonishingly stupid.
pranman.com
This will be extended by 5 years by Labour.

Remember that every visa extension (2-3 years) costs thousands of pounds, up to £10K for a family of 4.

If your visa extension gets denied, you get 60 (?) days to pack up your life and leave.
pranman.com
Many people think immigrants automagically get ILR after 5 years. Not so. The average student would already qualify only after ten years.

3 years on a student visa.
2 years on a post-study work visa.
5 years on a skilled worker visa.

So they'd currently qualify in the 11th year of their residence.
pranman.com
Most skilled workers arrive here in their 20s, so not only must they remain employed for ten consecutive years, but practically, cannot have children either. Because if you do, there'd be a long break in your employment record, and unless you're wealthy, how would you support yourself anyway?
pranman.com
So to extend this period of extreme stress and uncertainty to ten years instead of current five would, I am not kidding, drive thousands of people into desperate measures.

I'm mainly talking about professionals. Many in the NHS, but also in the City, in Advertising, PR, power companies, railways.
pranman.com
You need to be absolutely diligent in ensuring you maintain a minimum bank balance, while paying rent and bills, and if you get made redundant or fall ill, the practical implication is you have to pack up and leave the country.

I cannot emphasise the significant level of stress this causes.
pranman.com
Before ILR, most migrants must apply for visa extensions, usually 2-3 years, during which time they must show relevant employment, income and residence.

So, visa extensions are impossible if you remain unemployed for an extended period of time.
pranman.com
I am on ILR. Labour's policies will make ILR much harder to obtain.

Granting ILR to immigrants after ten consecutive years on a qualifying visa instead of current five, while also requiring they spend time volunteering is completely hare-brained. This will be a long 🧵
pranman.com
This article is about skilled migrants. And yet the photo you have for this article is asylum seekers on boats. This is how you scare a nation, this is how you manipulate people.

Here's another photo of a migrant.

Not so scary now, is it?